Production of acetylene by incom



March 3, 1953 H. SACH SE 'EI'AL $639,461

PRODUCTION OF'ACE ENE :[NCOMPLETE COMBUSTION or HYDROCARBONS Filedjlay18, 1950 FIG.| I pnsssuae REGULATOR HQ 2 a v PRESSURE -g REGULATOR GAS Il REGULATOR i MIXING DEVlGE 9 MIXING CHAMBER mum /f' DISTRIBUTOR SSACHSSE THOMAS KOSBAHN FLAME cnmasn ERW|N LEH RER "Neurons:

ATT'YS Patented Mar. 3, 1 953 PRODUCTION OF ACETYLENE BY INCOM- PLETECOMBUSTION F HYDROCARBONS Hans Sachsse, Kelheim/Donau, Thomas Kosbahn,Heidelberg-Rohrbach, and Erwin Lehrer, Bad Duerkheim, GermanyApplication May 18, 1950, Serial No. 162,688 In Germany October 1, 19484 Claims.

The present invention relates to the production of acetylene by theincomplete combustion of hydrocarbons, and the object of this inventionconsists in providing improvements of this art and of the apparatushitherto proposed for carrying out the said process.

Acetylene may be produced in known manner by the incomplete combustionof hydrocarbons with oxygen by heating each reactant separately, unitingthe two gases and allowing the mixture to flow into a reaction chamberin which the formation of acetylene proceeds in a flame reaction. Thedifliculty encountered in this particular process is to produce a flamewhich burns stably and does not strike back into the mixing chambercausing trouble in operation and damaging the apparatus throughexcessive heat. For example the flame is very sensitive to even slightfluctuations in pressure which may arise owing to disturbances in thesuction device for the conveyance of the acetylene-bearing gases formedor owing to sudden changes of resistance within the filter for thepurification of the gases or by the manipulation of other devicesconnected to the flame chamber. Such fluctuations in pressure give riseto changes in the composition of the mixture flowing into the flamechamber and often cause the flame to strike back, even whenhighprecision gas regulators are used to maintain the desired relativeproportions, as these regulators cannot compensate the fluctuations asquickly as required.

We have now found, and this is the object of the present invention, thatthe said disturbances can be very effectively countered by placing thereactants prior to mixing them, under as equal as possible a pressure.With this object in View, the conduit for the hydrocarbons and theconduit for the oxygen are both provided with pressure reservoirs whichare adjusted to the same absolute pressure and the pressure of which ispractically unaffected by the counter-pressure fluctuations. Theseregions of constant pressure may be constituted by gas holders or, intheir simplest form, by conduits of sufficient width and length, inwhich are located pressure regulators which are adjusted to the samerated value. Under these conditions the loss of pressure of thehydrocarbons from the region of constant pressure to the point of mixingis equal to the loss of pressure of the oxygen from the region ofconstant pressure to the point of mixing. When sudden fluctuations inthe counter-pressure occur the amounts of the two gases can only vary tothe same proportional extent so that the relative proportions areunaffected.

The invention will be further described with reference to theaccompanying drawings which show embodiments of apparatus according tothe invention.

Referring to Figure 1, the two gases entering at I and II are brought tothe same pressure by means of pressure regulators a and a1 and set tothe desired mixing ratio by means of a gas regulator b. They then flowthrough preheaters c and c1 and only then are contacted in a mixingdevice d and completely mixed in a mixing chamber e. The hot gas mixturepasses through a gas distributor i into a flame chamber g. In anapparatus of this type, methane and oxygen may be burned to formacetylene-bearing gases in a manner free from trouble, with both thehydrocarbon stream and the oxygen stream being kept under an excesspressure of about 0.4 atmosphere by means of the pressure regulators aand m.

The process according to the present invention also allows of speedingup the mixing of the reaction components and thus preventing mostefliciently a premature initiation of the reaction in the mixingchamber, by splitting up one or both reactants into partial streams andto unite all the individual streams in mixing devices arranged parallelto each other. This technique could not so far be used because suchsplit-up gas streams are liable to cause rhythmic fluctuations inpressure with consequent rapid changes in the mixing ratio and strikingback of the flame. None of these disadvantages, however, will occur whensplitting up the gas streams as shown in Figure 2. Parts e, f and gcorrespond to the same parts in Figure 1, the mixing chamber 6consisting of a plurality of almost rotation-symmetrical parallelmounted elements. The two reactants enter through channels it and i andare split up into partial streams by throttles hi, ha and ha and jetsi1, i2 and is. The throttles are so chosen that the gas streams receivedby them undergo the same loss of pressure as the gas streams of theother reactant passing through the jets. If pressure fluctuations shouldoccur owing to repercussion of the flame into the mixing chamber 6, therelative proportions of the two reaction components, once adjusted,remain constant. Whereas, in the reaction of methane with oxygen, thethroughput of methane cannot, in the absence of throttles as aforesaid,be carried above about 600 cubic meters per hour unless the flame is tostrike back into the mixing chamber and destroy this in a short time, itis possible by providing the throttles to carry on a continuousoperation with a throughput per hour of 1000 cubic meters of methane. l

What we claim is:

1. A process for the production of acetylene by the continuousincomplete combustion of a stream of hydrocarbons and oxygen with theformation of a flame after preheating the reactants, wherein the tworeactants, prior to mixing them, are brought to the same pressure.

2. A process for the production of acetylene by the continuousincomplete combustion of a stream of hydrocarbons and oxygen with theformation of a flame after preheating the reactants, wherein the tworeactants, prior to mixing them, are brought to the same pressure and atleast one of the two reactants, after they have been brought to the samepressure, is split up into partial streams and all the partial streamsare united in mixing devices arranged parallel to each other.

3. A process for the production of acetylene by the continuousincomplete combustion of a stream of methane and oxygen with theformation of a flame after preheating the reactants, wherein the tworeactants, prior to mixing them, are brought to the same pressure.

4. A process for the production of acetylene by the continuousincomplete combustion of a stream of methane and oxygen with theformation of a flame after preheating the reactants, wherein the tworeactants, prior to mixing them, are brought to the same pressure and atleast one of the two reactants, after they have been brought to the samepressure, is split up into partial streams and all the partial streamsare united in mixing devices arranged parallel to each other.

HANS SACHSSE. THOMAS KOSBAHN. ERWIN LEHRER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,179,378 Metzger Nov. 7, 19392,179,379 Metzger Nov. 7, 1939 2,191,510 Whitehurst Feb. 27, 1940

2. A PROCESS FOR PRODUCTION OF ACETYLENE BY THE CONTINUOUS INCOMPLETECOMBUSTION OF A STREAM OF HYDROCARBONS AND OXYGEN WITH THE FORMATION OFA FLAME AFTER PREHEATING THE REACTANTS, WHEREIN THE TWO REACTANTS, PRIORTO MIXING THEM, ARE BROUGHT TO THE SAME PRESSURE AND AT LEAST ONE OF THETWO REACTANTS, AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN BROUGHT TO THE SAME PRESSURE, ISSPLIT UP INTO PARTIAL